Section 24 Equity Aids the Vigilant, Not Those Who Sleep on Their Rights

• Library: Remedies 2006

Equity courts generally employ two sets of time limitations—statutes of limitation for the longest time limitation on an action, and the doctrine of laches, a more fact-based method—to determine whether an equitable action was “stale,” precluding some, if not all, of the relief prayed for. 2 John Norton Pomeroy, Equity Jurisprudence §§ 418–419e (5^th ed. 1941).

But courts of equity are not bound by statutes of limitation, and these statutes are only one factor to be considered:

“Laches is purely a creation of equity, and is only to be invoked by the defendant in a case where the plaintiff appeals to equity and seeks the enforcement of an equitable right. Laches in...